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T Shirt Printing – Before You Print Your T Shirts Read This
Apr
We’ve been providing t-shirt printing services in Long Beach and Los Angeles are for the past 5 years and printed thousands of t-shirts for clothing lines, restaurants, local businesses, sports teams, and schools.
With this experience, we feel like sharing our expertise and knowledge with you and making a complicated process as easy as pie for you when ordering t shirts.
We’ll share with you common stories we hear from new clients looking to print their t-shirts with us as well as some common mistakes to avoid when printing for the first time.
1. Finding The Right Printer.
We’ve worked for and with screen printers in Los Angeles, the majority of printers are nice people like you and me.
However, there are a few printers out there that priorities the old way of producing quality work and may lack the lack of organizational and communication skills which can delay orders and delivery time.
I wont say that were perfect because were not, we’ve made lots of mistakes that have cost us loyal clients and business, however..
By making these mistakes we quickly learned that having the right people in your team with high standards that value producing quality work minimizes errors, miscommunication and long delays.
Our main concern is that you get your product on time and printed on the best quality t shirts available in the apparel industry and trendsetting.
When finding the right printer a huge warning sign is an orderly workspace and organization. If you visit their shop and their office or workspace is messy, cluttered or unorganized this should raise a big red flag, this is not true all the time but do it at your own risk.
The reason clutter and messy workspace should serve as a big warning sign with any type of business you deal with are a lack of proper systems in place to produce quality work that is out on time and reduces the chances of errors.
If you can not physically make it to their offices like many of our clients since we mostly deal with online orders, ask to see their portfolio or images of their past work. Here’s is our work.
This will show you the range of print processes they can do and this also provides a look into the quality of work they do.
If you’re looking for custom t-shirt printing whether its size tag, sleeve prints or specialty inks – ask to see specific pictures with those requirements you’re looking for.
However make sure the pictures you see are on their Yelp, website or other social media page because its easy to find a picture online and claim it as your own. Yelp is another great resource to get a sense of what other buyers have said about the printers work.
Yelp will definitely help you in making a buying decision before committing to a printer – you can take a look at ours Here.
2. Cheap T Shirts Are Not Always The Best
A common story we hear from new clients coming in to print with us is how the past vendor’s t-shirt quality was poor and the after-effects of washing the t-shirts they purchased shrunk, lost their dye color and were returned.
In printing thousands of t-shirts for local businesses in Long Beach we quickly established which t-shirt brands were the best to print on and now supply and offer only those t-shirts that meet specific requirements that the client will approve of.
The canvas on which your brand, logo, company emblem or name will be printed on is key to the success of your brand so it makes sense to research first to choose the right type of t-shirt that best fits you or your brand.
Below is a video by Issac Legend (video audio is a bit windy) in which he shares his experience of buying 500 pieces before researching quality before purchasing and printing. The biggest takeaway from this video is simply to do your research first before committing to buying a large bulk order of blank t-shirts.
Before you buy a large order start small and test out colors, sizes, fitting, durability and quality to make sure your t-shirt is the one you want to go with on future projects.
From personal experience, if you get a really low quote on your t-shirt order or it’s too good to be true compared to other t-shirts or services, ask yourself why this product is so low. Low pricing is usually the sign of inexperience or of low quality work, cheaper is not always better and usually comes with hidden costs.
3. Why Sampling T Shirts Work in Your Favor.
If you are building your brand or looking for wholesale t shirts its best to test out small batches before committing to a bulk t-shirt order if you don’t know much about the vendor or the quality of the t-shirt.
By testing out small batches you’ll find out what color looks better with your designs, what style of t-shirt your clientele likes, how much the t-shirt shrinks, which t-shirt sells the best or is more popular etc.
Another thing you’ll find out about that’s pretty important is the relationship with your printer and the quality of service they deliver, testing out small batches if you’re growing a brand will allow you to see if your printer is the right business partner for you and your company.
T Shirt Printing On Gildan tees
We’re ultimately looking to find a t-shirt that’s good quality and at a fair price. For this combination of good quality stitching, quality materials, color selection and comfort is the Gildan Heavy Cotton.
The Gildan Heavy Cotton t-shirt is perfect for everyday promotional t shirt printing, not a high fashion type of t-shirt but a good and solid quality t-shirt that you can custom print for a fair price.
Gildan is the most popular t-shirt we use to print for restaurants, High Schools, sports teams and family reunion t-shirts that look good and are comfortable overall.
However if you are looking for a more high-end and fashionable t shirt that looks and feels great take a look at our blog post we did on the Top 5 Quality Blank T-shirts.
We go over the 5 best t-shirts out now that include fine fabrics and materials with superior quality and are selling in exclusive boutiques and high-end retail stores.
Our minimum sample pack for these quality t-shirts comes in 12 blank pieces that you can order in different design styles to pinpoint the right style for your future orders. Mix and match colors, sizes and other products we carry so you can find the best quality, size, color and style for your clientele.
Things to Consider Before Printing Your T shirts
- The number of printed colors on your t-shirts.
- Print locations – front and back, size tags, sleeve prints or bottom prints.
- Quality of t-shirt.
- Quantity of t-shirts.
If you need help with your t-shirt printing please email us at info@laprintanddesign.com
